O captain, my captain.

Not long ago, a billion Indians were cheering their abrasive, aggressive captain in Australia.
He was a very un-Indian cricketer. But he was the one.
In Australia, he set the tone with a typical, I-dare-you-to-bowl-short century that set the tone for the tour. He was the one.
In England, he bared his chest and his intent. He was the one.
From a bad start, he almost took us to the top of the World Cup heap. He was the one.

And then came, the cricketer’s curse. Loss of form.
And when big trees fall, we look at statistics.
Now that the embers were dying, we concluded that all of the above had to be attributed to team effort. After all, it is not just one flannelled fool, there’re 11.
And did Sandy Gordon not have a hand in motivating the team?
And how can we forget John Wright? He had a hand as well.
And look at the figures! Rahul Dravid had a major hand in each of the captain’s victories.

And then came, the Chappell Diaries. Let’s not get into that.
High-handedness, insecurity, games other than what cricketers play, cowardice and everything else was leaked to the country at large.
Maybe not Chappell’s fault.
But the nation was shocked.

And the captain fell.

Now, we loved this snooty captain.
We loved him because we felt that his brand of aggression is what we always needed.
Why should we be meek?
Why should we not take on the rest?
Why should we not sledge?
Why should we not keep the opposing captain waiting?
We loved him because he had the balls.
We swore together when he misfielded.
We swore together when he got caught behind yet again.
We loved him.

But when we saw him struggle into 20s and 30s, we had had enough.
Because we don’t want to see an icon struggle.
Because it’s embarrassing and a blot on our collective potency.
Because you watched every ball not in anticipation of a divine drive through cover but in fear of a swipe and a caught behind.
We were not heroes in front of TV any more, we were a bunch of yellow livered supporters.
And that, hurt.

He should have retired then.
He would have been our most successful captain ever.
And he would have been a legend.
Venerated in a country that adores its heroes and reveres sacrifice.

He was dropped as captain then.
Dropped in favour of a very worthy successor.
He should have retired at least then.

But he did not.
He hung on.
To our collective shock, the man who only God could out-drive on the offside was now in the team as an all-rounder.

And yesterday, he was sacked from the team.

He could have been everything Chappell called him.
And some more.
Everything we feared. And some more.
But yesterday, was pathetic.
And the excuse, his performance, even more so.
It defies all logic, except the whispers that say vengeance.
It was a mockery of the selection process.
A mockery in every which way.

I wouldn’t wish this exit on my worse enemy.
And not long ago, he was my hero.

Saurav Ganguly deserved better.